Telarc 1812 Overture DSD Recording Released on DVD-A

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JonUrban

Forum Curmudgeon
Staff member
Admin
Moderator
Since 2002/2003
Joined
Mar 2, 2002
Messages
17,681
Location
Connecticut
Am I missing something. Maybe I am.

I was digging through my DVD-A's looking for something else, and I found this disc I had never opened. Must have bought it over 15 years ago. It's a TELARC DVD-A and it has DSD banners on the front and back.

Is this unusual, or am I just forgetting that fact. Maybe they took a DSD source and converted it to PCM. In that case, one would guess they would have been better off with an SACD.

Anyone else have this disc?

PS - Love that price sticker - NEW TECH 1999 :rolleyes:

Telarc DVDA DSD.jpg
Telarc DVDA DSD.jpg
 
Last edited:
Yes. I have it and it was released along with the SACD version. I guess Telarc was hedging its format bet.
 
I was checking out the new Sound Forge 12 today (more on that later), and ripped and looked at this disc. What an odd sort! Here is the wav files. As you can see, it's really wonky. The LFE is sort of follows the center channel, but is different at points. It's like a 6 channel recording with the base in all 6 channels. The cannon shots are really gut punches, and sound amazing, but the rest of the piece is not a very discrete deal. It's nice to listen to, but it's not like a Tacet mix.

1812 wav.jpg
 
I bought that disc when I first discovered surround to “shake the house”, which it does!! I’ve since found another version of the 1812 in surround which I prefer musically (I’m not at home now, but someone recommended it in the “classical music in surround” thread.) I haven’t run the DR meter on this, but I’ll bet it’s got the highest DR of any disc I have! (The canons are LOUD)
 
I'd love to know your preferred surround 1812. I may have been told by somebody here already, but I'm not sure what it is.
 
Yes. I have it and it was released along with the SACD version. I guess Telarc was hedging its format bet.

Yes. It was recorded in DSD and then released on both SACD and DVD-A when Telarc was exploring both formats.
They ended up going with SACD, so there were only a couple of initial DVD-A releases including the 1812 album.
 
I still have my Telarc DVD-A of 1812.

One evening, while entertaining in the early 80's, I was showing off my system with the first Telarc 1812 on LP. The woofers froze. Not an easy thing to do with a 500w power amp. I rebought that one later on RBCD.

My previous 1812 was the Ormandy Quad on Columbia.
 
Last edited:
I still have my Telarc DVD-A of 1812.

One evening, while entertaining in the early 80's, I was showing off my system with the first Telarc 1812 on LP. The woofers froze. Not an easy thing to do with a 500w power amp. I rebought that one on RBCD.

My previous 1812 was the Ormandy Quad on Columbia.

My first Telarc was The Firebird by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony. My high school buddy and I both built 3-way stereo floor speakers with 12-inch woofers. (We used the same drivers; his had better cabinets.) I remember being thrilled by the bass drum crashes in the Firebird finale, which brought out room-shaking low frequencies I'd never heard through those speakers up to that point. But then when my buddy brought over his copy of the Telarc 1812--man! The woofers didn't freeze, but it was a show just to watch them pump in and out...
 
There's several vinyl cuts of the original Telarc 1812 now. I think the first one is the A-3 cut. It's the only Telarc vinyl I have at present. My first full 1812 was performed by The London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kenneth Alwynn and released on Decca. I only found out in the last year or so that the cannons on it weren't actually cannons, but rather slowed down gun fire.
 
I realized I should mention that Thomas Mowrey mentioned that his recording of the 1812 Overture for Deutsche Grammophon / Polydor is an unheard surround extravaganza. I don't know if it ever had a CD release. Is Dutton-Vocalion interested in dipping a toe into DG's catalog for this?

R-2813038-1302187651.jpeg[2].jpg


Edit to add: it was issued on RBCD in a limited run as part of a 2CD set called "Symphonic Spectacular," part of a run of 5 2CD sets of Fiedler's recordings for Deutsche Grammophon. Those sets are out of print but available for streaming.
 
My first Telarc was The Firebird by Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony. My high school buddy and I both built 3-way stereo floor speakers with 12-inch woofers. (We used the same drivers; his had better cabinets.) I remember being thrilled by the bass drum crashes in the Firebird finale, which brought out room-shaking low frequencies I'd never heard through those speakers up to that point. But then when my buddy brought over his copy of the Telarc 1812--man! The woofers didn't freeze, but it was a show just to watch them pump in and out...

Telarc was famous for having warnings on some of their Surround Sound SACDs - like the 1812 Overture - about high level digital effects and in this case digital cannon firings.
Watch out for those woofers! :)
 
Telarc was famous for having warnings on some of their Surround Sound SACDs - like the 1812 Overture - about high level digital effects and in this case digital cannon firings.
Watch out for those woofers! :)

One time I didn't heed the warning and blew a tweeter. They weren't kidding, Brian!
 
Have you seen the groove on at least one of their vinyl cuts of the 1812? It almost looks like the stylus has to track a right angle!
 
Have you seen the groove on at least one of their vinyl cuts of the 1812? It almost looks like the stylus has to track a right angle!
Telarc vinyl is dangerous;)
I love their cut of the 1812, didn't even know about it in surround....
some of those audiophile vinyl pressings of Classical titles are beautiful to look at.
 
Back
Top